McDowell Property Bought For Teacher Village

A long-abandoned property in downtown Welch has been purchased for the construction of apartment-style housing for teachers and other professionals.

A Teacher Village will be constructed in downtown Welch.

Credit Suzanne Higgins

Reconnecting McDowell, the public-private partnership focused on improving McDowell County's education system and economy, has purchased the former Best Furniture and Katzen buildings and the attached parking lots for $92,000.

The group intends to build a Teachers Village - which will include about 30 housing units, areas for residents to collaborate and relax, and community amenities such as a street-level coffee shop.

The American Federation of Teachers is the lead partner in the Reconnecting McDowell effort and says McDowell public schools have struggled for years with teacher vacancies, due in large part to a lack of available housing in the county.

Community Housing Partners Design Studio of Christiansburg, VA., will design and construct the project. The firms says it specializes in green and sustainable housing.

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Editor's Note: We begin a series of stories looking into the issue of how to keep young people in West Virginia. This came about as part of a special digital project undertaken at West Virginia Public Broadcasting over the past few months, WVNextIn6.

We asked you to tell us what’s next for West Virginia in six words or less. Several posts had the theme “Keep our Best and Brightest here.”

According to a recent report from the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research, West Virginia is facing a difficult road ahead in keeping people in the state. The state’s expected to lose about 20 thousand people through the year 2030, and could lose a congressional seat because of it. It all leads to a question West Virginians have been asking for years: How do we keep young people here? We asked our younger listeners on Twitter and Facebook to talk to us about their thoughts.